Brendan O'Brien

In 1973 Brendan O'Brien began as presenter/reporter with the prestigious Seven Days current/political affairs programme which aired four times a week on RTÉ (Ireland's national television station). In Autumn 1975 he moved to the RTÉ Newsroom and spent three years as a journalist with the Sunday programme Newsround. This was followed by 18 months as Editor/presenter of the nightly Countrywide news programme. Then, he spent two years as a general news reporter, during which time he went to Buenos Aires in Argentina to cover the Falklands war.

Subsequently he became senior presenter/reporter with the thrice-weekly Today Tonight TV programme, where he carried out investigations into crime, political and current affairs issues, including investigations into the Provisional IRA, drug abuse, and the kidnapping of businessman Don Tidey by the IRA. He made two major documentaries on the IRA for Today Tonight, in 1984 and 1988.

Since September 1992 Brendan has been a senior presenter/reporter on the twice-weekly Prime Time, RTÉ's principal political/current affairs programme.

Awards: He has won the Jacobs Award for investigative reporting; the A.T. Cross National Media Award for Outstanding Journalism, the Sunday Independent 'Arts Award'.

In 2008 he received the Best Newcomer Award fom the Irish Book Awards for his first Children's book The Story of Ireland and the Dublin Airport Authority Irish Children's Book of the Year Award: Senior for the same book.